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Columbus police tracked a cellphone signal to find a dead man early this morning, likely a
week after he ran his car off I-270 and into a wooded area near Gahanna.

It doesn’t appear, however, that Paul M. Frazier, died from the crash, Franklin County Coroner
Jan Gorniak said.

Further tests could show a more specific reason for Frazier’s death, though it seems to be from
natural causes, Gorniak said.

When Frazier, 54, died is difficult to pinpoint. Gorniak placed his time of death at less than
seven days ago and at least three days ago.

It was a week ago – last Friday — when Frazier’s brother filed a missing-person report about him
with Columbus police.

His body was found at 12:23 a.m., a short distance from his wrecked 2001 Toyota Solara. A
Columbus police helicopter had helped to find the car after police tracked his cellphone to the
area.

“If it hadn’t been for the helicopter unit and the eyes in the sky, we probably wouldn’t have
found him then,” said Officer Mary Battle, a Columbus detective with the missing-persons unit.

Columbus police Sgt. Terry McConnell said police decided to track the cellphone when they
learned that Frazier, of the Far North Side, suffered from diabetes and heart problems and had been
feeling poorly days before he went missing.

It’s possible that he crashed last Thursday morning. Co-workers said he didn’t come to work
that day, and motorists reported a car driving erratically in the area near where his car
eventually was found. That morning, Columbus police contacted Gahanna police about a report of a
southbound car swerving on I-270, somewhere between the Hamilton Road and E. Broad Street exits
about 7:30 a.m.. Witnesses said the car ran off the road, went airborne and went over the
embankment.

Gahanna police checked the area and found no skid marks or evidence that a car had crashed off
I-270, said Brian Hoyt, a Gahanna spokesman.

After the car eventually was found, investigators said it had traveled 457 feet off I-270,
crashed through a fence and came to a stop on its side in a wooded area.

“The chain-link fence fell back. It left no indication that a car went through it,” McConnell
said.

Frazier apparently had gotten out of his car through the shattered back window, but they don’t
know how long he was outside of the car before he died.